Lawyers boycott court hearings in Lahore

The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has opposed a move to mark cases in civil courts for hearing sub division wise. The council’s Vice Chairman Hafeez ur Rehman said, “We do not accept division of the civil cases at any cost” as it would create problems for the lawyers in approaching courts from one sub-division to another. The lawyers continued a boycott and did not appear before the courts, except in some cases of urgent nature. The bar council also condemned inclusion of a clause of the Anti-Terrorism Act in FIRs registered against lawyers.

Former Punjab Bar Council vice chairman Farhan Shehzad said the district & sessions judges had no jurisdiction to divide the cases. He claimed that illegal notifications were being issued and lawyers had not been taken into confidence while taking the decision. The leader of lawyers warned of a more severe reaction if the practice of implicating lawyers in cases of terrorism is not stopped. A day earlier, members of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) had locked the main gates of the district courts in protest against a notification in which directions were issued that senior civil judge and civil judges of Lahore dealing with civil matters should entertain and dispose of cases sub division wise. On Tuesday, police officials unlocked the doors and cleared the way for litigants and prisoner vans for entering or exiting the premises.